Motiejunas helps Rockets rally past Grizzlies

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For most of Thursday night at Toyota Center, the Rockets could not make 3-pointers, but somehow they would find a way. Dwight Howard could not stay on the court, but the Rockets found an answer. James Harden could not make shots, but he found another means to score and score.

The Rockets could do little right. They trailed by as many as 13 points. Heading into the fourth quarter, Howard was on the bench with foul trouble and a stiff back. The Memphis Grizzlies were bullying the Rockets inside. Jeremy Lin was off. Aaron Brooks limped away with a sprained ankle.

Yet the Rockets kept searching until they found a way. Howard could not stay on the floor, so Donatas Motiejunas, a player who normally can’t get on the floor, filled the void. Lin could not get going, so he made a few reverses until he found his shot. Most of all, when Harden could not make shots, he made free throws, as many as any Rockets player ever has in a game, until the Rockets rallied through their second fourth-quarter rush past the Grizzlies in a month 100-92 in their most inexplicable win of the season.

Harden’s night put him in the record book for tying Sleepy Floyd’s franchise mark of 22 free throws and for the most points in a game with just two or fewer field goals.

“Just being aggressive, being aggressive,” Harden said. “I couldn’t make a shot. I just tried to get to the rim.

“Yeah, I would have liked to break it. I don’t like missing free throws at all. They’re free. I missed three of them, but I’m just happy we won the game. It’s more growth than anything. Big win last night on the road. Tonight was more of a grind-out game. We didn’t have it going, but we found a way to fight and come out with the victory. That’s all that matters.”

D-Mo to the rescue

The Rockets won despite Howard scoring just two points, Harden making 2 of 9 shots and the team making 5 of 24 3-pointers. It helped that Lin scored 14 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter. But more than anything, the entire fourth-quarter rally was most stunning if only because it required that Motiejunas battle Zach Randolph to a standstill on a night Randolph had been dominating everyone the Rockets placed in his path.

So shocking was Motiejunas’ effort — with swarms of help defense — that even on a night Harden grabbed a spot in the record book he said, “D-Mo won us that game.”

Motiejunas had just three rebounds in his 23 minutes, but in the fourth quarter, he did enough to keep Randolph in check. Through three quarters, the Grizzlies had scored 17 second-chance points. In the fourth, they had three. Randolph had scored 18 points; in the fourth, he scored five. The Grizzlies made just 7 of 26 shots in the fourth as the Rockets pulled away. And when the Rockets were making their run, it took off when Motiejunas swatted away a Mike Conley drive on one end and finished the break with a slam on the other.

“Zach is a big dude,” Motiejunas said. “He’s one of the best players in the league at the 4 position. He’s certainly not easy to stop, especially when he is so strong. I had a big task.”

Rockets coach Kevin McHale said he intended to go back to Howard but chose not to because of the stiff back that McHale said had been bothering Howard for a few days. Howard said he was “OK” and with Omer Asik and Greg Smith out, Howard said he could have come back in. He argued, however, that the Rockets were best-served to leave Motiejunas on the floor.

“D-Mo came in and he was Super D-Mo tonight,” said Howard, who also sat out the entire fourth quarter of the Rockets’ comeback win in Memphis on Nov. 25. “He played great on both ends of the floor. He ran the floor. He battled Z-Bo. That’s all you can ask for.

“I would have gone out there, but like I told him, ‘Those guys are playing great. D-Mo is playing great. Leave him out there.’ He was playing excellent. It’s all about winning. That’s the only thing that matters.

Officially upset

Randolph saw things somewhat differently.

“It was eight against five,” Randolph said, blaming the officials for helping the Rockets comeback.

For the Grizzlies, that might serve as an explanation as logical as any. As Conley put it, “I don’t know how we lost.”

Few could blame him. On a night Harden did not make shots and Howard barely played a half, the Rockets had found a way to win in the last place they thought to look.